#portingdale

happy wbw!! where did my notes on this go i swear i had them

SO the war started 57 years ago which is a number i absolutely did not pull out of thin air. nope :D short summary

elderwood wanted easier access to the rivers in the wetlands, which belonged to portingdale

naturally they didn't like that so: war

worchester left and stopped being a district after the war started

at first elderwood had an advantage because they sprung the attack on portingdale and all

but the war is very on and off

and after one particular ceasefire, portingdale seemed (and and was) much more powerful, for reasons no one in elderwood understood

then there's another ceasefire, and towards the end of the ceasefire is when the tww timeline starts

what are the typical activities? are there any celebrations or festivals (ex: in my country, villages usually have a week of festivals and celebrations in summer, and people who live at those villages meet at the central square and there's music and food and all that)

thanks! have a good day/evening/night!

@ink-fireplace-coffee

oooh happy wbw carmen!!! hope your day is wonderful so far <3

holidays are different depending on where you are (and none of them have names right now) !!

in elderwood, it's common for people to meet at the Assembly Cabin and then spend time in the woods with magical string lights and other stuff :D children climb trees and race each other to the top, and it's a good time alskflkdsj

portingdale often has bonfires when they're celebrating within their own communities!! it's very rare for them to have an all-district celebration at the palace, but it does happen from time to time (like when an heir takes over the throne). hOWEVER, the palace does hold balls and stuff with smaller numbers of guests.

hell yeah happy wbw :D (everyone wants fun facts and magic but no one wants intercontinental economics alsdjfldsk /lh it deserves a better ramble than i can give it today anyway)

used my bear continent/tedhakia/fantasy east asia fun facts here, so now you get ,,, this

even though portingdale and elderwood are at war, they trade with each other to prevent the hooks from profiting off of their war aka they trade with each other because spite

portingdale has a whole mountain range that i always forget about laksjfds it's called the brenin peaks and is the source of kjer's minerals

there's a secret pebble beach on the shore of elderwood 75% because of childhood friends lore and 24% because of vibes (these vibes that i walked straight through several swarms of bugs to get) and 1% because it might be important in a theoretical sequel

happy wbw @magic-is-something-we-create!! i hope you are having a lovely day :D

AKLSDJFSKL i could go on forever here. so there's the three districts (elderwood, the hooks, portingdale) and um. worchester. which for spoiler reasons i will not be talking about very much :D they all meet in the inner city, and trade between districts (not worchester :/ ) happen there as well as other city~ things.

okay let's talk about the war lore, shall we. portingdale and elderwood have been fighting on and off over the Wetlands. except they still all trade (it's like friends with benefits, but enemies with benefits). at the beginning of the war, they didn't trade with each other, but they still needed raw material from each other (portingdale is the only place to get any sort of minerals and elderwood has the best wood for building). the hooks then, like the sneaky bastards they are, bought from both and sold them to each other at a higher price, and when elderwood/portingdale put the pieces together they were enraged. since then they've all traded with each other even during war. the hooks remained neutral because when the war first started, they had their fishing boom after they developed better techniques to fish (better than elderwood a least) and didn't want to spend money on fighting a war.

BUT that's all about to go to shit because the hooks do get involved in the tww timeline :D

favorite things about each district:

the hooks: the VIBES!!! like dark and bustling city and corruption and gangs. but also underground art shows and museums and architecture, and they all co-exist :D portingdale: court. intrigue. need i say more? also the fact that good people exist even though the king is power hungry. elderwood: it used to be the mysterious magical statue, but now it's the woodcarving lore. worchester: they have really really talented guards. rip to chloe who made an impulsive decision to try and sneak into worchester (it wasn't her fault!! she was bound to be sabotaged, but she's okay)

happy wbw!! going to focus on the portingdale military here, and the next ask will be about elderwood!!

*checks notes* *info isn't there* *panic* *oh right i just shoved it in my draft*

anyway!

the portingdale military is HUGE and focuses a lot on brute force. this means a lot of experienced generals with traditional tactics that they've been using for a long time.

their secret weapon is actually huge tww spoilers, which i once again should have considered before posting about what i'd like to talk about for wbw ALSKFJLS but i'll pull up the map for where the training grounds are (red dots)

also they wear a hat loosely inspired by the us navy uniform

happy wbw len!!!

SO since there are too many distinct cultures between the districts ;-; let's talk about portingdale here :D because they don't get enough love. yeah the throne is pretty evil but shhh.

portingdale is split into three pretty major groups: royalty (including advisors and ambassadors and pages and everyone else associated), field workers (including farmers and weavers and some merchants), and mine workers (including the,,, mining people and blacksmiths; i have quite a bit more research to do here).

royal court. fancy ballrooms. clearly early-classical-esque music. i'm tempted to compose an example now. thank you.

the field workers have more free time (or least thinking time) because most of what they do is busy work, and it's the same year after year. some of them compose/song write, but it's generally considered rude to sing loudly while in the fields. the field workers are the most geographically diverse population in portingdale, so they have lots of different music tastes, and it's a courtesy to keep mostly quiet!

the mine workers is where portingdale starts to have more fun in terms of music :D they spend all day in the mines with (mostly) the same people for their entire working life. yes, of course they sing. in fact, since these groups are loosely based on where they live, a lot of songs are passed down and changed!!! the style of the music changes a lot from group to group, and to most people outside of the group, their music is near unheard of. fun fact: some of the oldest ancestors etched a few lyrics into the walls of various mountains :)

there aren't many stereotypes of musicians because of how diverse the styles/people are (they're all just. there). but higher classes do tend to look down on the mine workers and their music for fairly obvious reasons.

since most people make music for themselves, there's not sense of respect or other positive/negative feelings towards them!! the musicians that play for any sort of royal events are regarded as necessary, but at the same time not worthy because people take them for granted :(

thanks for asking <3 you chose two of the hardest questions aldskfjslk

Paris: OC with the best fashion sense?

in order from best to worst: eden (literal queen did i mention im love she? yes, yes i did literally one ask ago; colors coordinate and she's even thought about accessories, overalls/maybe a flower dress), jereth (flannel and stylish jeans and piercings), len (rat bastard (affectionate); edgy. yeah. looks super cool), chloe (tries on about 50% of days; leather jacket yeah baby), cal (like a plain shirt and maybe jeans/sweatpants/anything goes)

Berlin: is there any well know art form/ artist in your world/country?

so like. yes. but i haven't thought about it too much. i'm making half of this up on the spot and we're just gonna have fun with it :D

the hooks have (has? collective?) a lot of sculpting things!! their council building is really grand and i haven't decided what architectural style it has, but it's fancy and has sculptures around it. marble vibes. maybe glass vibes. and then for just Normal People they still have sculpting things but also painting. underground art shows in the north ward almost every weekend. thinking about making jereth an artist of some sort because it would drive his rich parents absolutely crazy. and he has those Vibes.

elderwood has a lot of wood carving as a product of being surrounded by forests. they also value life though, so most of it is from already dead trees. they've experienced a decline in wood carvers for this reason. it's very very close to being a controversial topic in terms of should we do this even though it could harm our environment? but there are benefits to wood carving!! the cabin in elderwood (a sort of communal place which doubles as their capital) is sacred and the carvings are enchanted (i can phrase that better, but it's functional, and words are just not working right now). so the carvings have all sorts of protection spells weaved into them! and some people swear they can move. especially the fish on the outside that people think swims all the way around the perimeter.

portingdale is big on music. i haven't figured out exactly how, but think classical music for fancy ballrooms in the palace and sea shanty style music for the workers in the mines.